It's Thursday and that means it's time for a little #tbt Hoodoo Voodoo! *Well, hoodoos at least. I was discussing interesting rock formations with @nineclaws the other day and hoodoos came up and gave me an idea for a post.
To sum up the wiki article, hoodoos are tall rock spires that are formed by erosion. Some sort of harder rock (usually volcanic in origin) forms a 'cap' that helps to protect the softer rock beneath, as time passes it erodes into these interesting tent/teepee shaped spires.
These photos are all from my visit to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument in October 2018. It's about 40 miles outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico near the town of Cochiti.
There's a trail there the winds through a slot canyon and takes you up to a lookout where you can look down on the hoodoos and all the poor fools just starting their hike.
The hoodoos look a little different from down below...
The hike is fun, especially making your way through the slot canyon. Wouldn't want to be there when it rains though, that sucker would flood in a heartbeat. Speaking of water, there is none there so if you ever think about visiting, plan on bringing in your own supply.
In the canyon it's easy to see how water has shaped the rock.
Plenty of shade too.
Eventually you trade the confines of the slot canyon for more wide open vistas.
I can see for miles and miles...
If you hadn't just hiked through it, it'd be easy to miss the canyon.
You can kinda make out some of the trails in the photo above.
It's day use only or else I'd be camping here for some golden hour photography.
This is probably the high point of this ramble.
Closeup time! Now that y'all've seen a hoodoo, who has voodoo photos? Or other interesting rock formations?
Wow! I had to slowly go through all the photos, pausing to study each one. Stunning. Thanks for doing this post and mentioning hoodoos to me. I cannot get over this place. I really wish I could see it in person. I love the curving in the photo where you show how the water has shaped the stone. Do you know what the composite of the stone there is? From what I can tell, it looks like a type of sandstone layered with a conglomerate. There seem to be small stones imbedded in each.
After we were talking, I went looking at the hoodoos. Oddly enough, I came across a place in northwestern British Columbia with hoodoos
You're more than welcome! I'd never heard of them myself until the friend I was traveling with told me about Tent Rocks, no clue how she found out about it. I was blown away when we got there, there's just some much cool shit to see. I think the place floods pretty good on the rare occasion that it gets rain, there was a surprising amount of obvious water erosion effects on the rocks, especially down in the slot canyon. Some of it was rather reminiscent of how driftwood looks. According to the wiki page they're tuff and pumice but I have no other knowledge about that. Yeah, there were definitely what appeared to be small stones embedded in them, reminded me of old decaying concrete that has broken down enough the aggregate is kinds exposed.
Never would have expected to find hoodoos in BC, that's a badass looking shot and place. Do you have any idea how remote the place is where that shot is from?
I can only imagine what the whole experience must be like. Too bad you can't be there overnight. I think I'd need weeks to explore that area.
Your description of the stone answers some of my questions. I'm not familiar with tuff, but I see it's also connected to volcanic activity, the same as pumice is. Several sites I've looked at are basalt, which is also supposed to be volcanic. I tend to look at chemical compositions of stone, so I'm wandering into that here. The fact you say it reminds you of old decaying concrete made me think of St. Martin's, New Brunswick. There are stones embedded into a soft sandstone in a similar manner, although much denser with the number of them. Reminded me of masonry or concrete the way you described.
I stumbled on that by accident, due to our conversation, lol. This one is located in northern British Columbia, about three quarters away from the US border and very close to the coast. It's very isolated from what I see and supposedly the area is covered with glacier for a large part of the time.
Oops, somehow I missed this. Yeah, I don't know anything about the chemical compositions. Lol, that sounds remote enough for me!
Anyways, I was just reading a bit more on the Tetons and came across this, which might answer questions from an earlier conversation.
Per wikipedia:
Yes, it's really isolated! Interesting what wikipedia says. I'll have to take a look at the land mass where the fault line is. I still think it's rather strange that there are no foothills, regardless of what wiki says.
I have gotten a chance to see some hoodoo's before. The formation are always interesting to look at. I like that last shot and how it shows all the sedimentary layers.
Nice! I had not heard of them before my friend suggested we go, so I didn't know what to expect but they were really interesting. Did you get a chance to get up close to some of them? The ones I saw almost reminded me of old weathered concrete. I normally try to avoid swapping lenses in the desert but I couldn't not get a closeup of that :)
Not super close, but there are some in California that we would pass by on our trips toward the coast, I think highway 20, but that was a it ago. We always meant to take a detour and get closer, but we just never found the time.
wow! great shots!
love those land formations, years and years creating color and shapes.
tks for sharing.
Thank you!
If I had a dollar for each year it took, I'd split it with you and we'd both be rich 😎
hahaha, that's true... patience and persistence are the keys.
wow these are some stunning shots! They almost look like buildings